


The Knell of an Imitation

by InkDomain



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: 2P!Hetalia, 2p!s, Crossover, Do You Copy, Failed Rescue, Horror, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 12:53:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15119801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkDomain/pseuds/InkDomain
Summary: Knell: The sound of a bell, especially when rung solemnly for a death or funeral.Matthew (1p!Canada) is new to being a watchman in Gracewind Park and is paired with James (2p!Canada) for his first night shift. Shortly into the shift, a distress call comes through the radio from Alfred, needing help from something chasing him in the forest.Matthew and James attempt to aid Alfred along the trails towards the safety of the tower, and away from the creature that is after them.Spoiler alert: Matthew makes a fatal mistake.





	The Knell of an Imitation

**Author's Note:**

> Not proofread.   
> Crossover/Dialogue/Situation from Do You Copy by Space Octopus Studios.   
> Hetalia belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya  
> I own nothing but adding the characters into this situation.

The tell-tale signs of the oncoming winter accompanied the night air after the descent of the sun behind the horizon. The visible evidence of exhaled breath was one of these signs, paired with the subtle sting of the bitter wind against the exposed skin. Matthew didn’t mind the oncoming coldness of winter that Canada was famous for, his Canadian blood pumping through his veins kept him insulated to a certain extent. 

Matthew adored anything relating to nature, therefore it was only logical to take on a job as a watchman in the closest national park to where he lived- Gracewind Park. It was on the smaller side regarding the area, but it was densely packed with luscious trees that surrounded a deep lake in the heart of the park. Visiting Gracewind had been an annual tradition for Matthew ever since he could remember, the forest being a second home to him. The reports of missing hikers, with the occasional staff, was put to the back of his mind since it was a popular nesting area for bears and other territorial animals. 

Matthew was accepted for the job, his experience in anything nature-related was impressive for a man his age. It was his third week on the job, but it was his first time working the night shift. Since he was new to the night shift, his boss informed him that a veteran watchman would accompany him to show him the ropes of the job. Matthew didn’t need to check his map as he made his way on the trail from the entrance of the park to Watchtower Four. He had arrived before sundown, as he had been instructed to by his partner for the night, and walked the stairs up to the tower. When he entered, he immediately noticed the disarray the tower was in. Frowning slightly at the countless sheets of paper scattered across the wooden floor, not to mention the pack of beer with a few empty bottles near it. 

His co-worker didn’t bother to get up from his place on the small cot that was provided for brief naps for workers, or for an injured park visitor who needed assistance. Matthew cleared his throat to get the other male’s attention, only to receive a curt glance from bored looking lilac coloured eyes.   
“H-Hi, I’m Matthew, but M-Mattie is just fine.” Matthew introduced himself in his usual reserved manner, offering a nervous smile as his colleague put down the book he had been reading and pushed himself to his feet. He grunted slightly at the movements, as though the action had taken a few years from him.   
“James.” He simply replied, though there was a subtle hint of a powdered blush dusting his cheeks as he looked over his co-worker for the night. “Hang on a minute.” He murmurs, voice just as gruff as his appearance, moving past Matthew with a grace that takes Matthew by surprise. His eyebrows crease, furrowing as he watches James shut the heavy-duty red door and proceeds to lock each and every lock he had put on the door. It was clear that James was hellbent on keeping something in or locking something out. 

“Want the tour?” James asked once he was finished with locking the door, knowing that Matthew had spent his past working hours in the main office building at the entrance of the park. Matthew nods, softly smiling his thanks as he begins to take in more of the room and starts to panic. James might be unstable. The two windows that were next to the door were covered up with spare wood, boards nailed to the walls to keep them in place. There was a strange symbol etched into the board which covered the window above the desk that housed the park radio. 

Matthew gulps, hoping that James was just a type of paranoid that wasn’t dangerous. He knows what the woods can do to someone, especially at night, but there was something deeper to this. James clears his throat and makes Matthew jump, pivoting on his heel to face him as James arches an eyebrow at him. He moves his hand in a way which offers Matthew to come and take a look, which he obliges. Stepping out into the cold night, Matthew’s breath is immediately seen, and he shivers at the sudden contrast. The view makes it worth the late shift and the paranoid co-worker, the blackness of the lake surrounded by the trees. 

The balcony doesn’t offer much other than the breaker switch at the end of the walkway, where James leads and Matthew follows. Matthew’s eyes take note of the blocked sideways of the balcony, as though they had been hastily put together in fear.   
“This is the breaker. Like the note says, it’s broken, so if you have to use it then just hold it.” James explains, waving his hand at the open panel where the switch was on display. Like he had mentioned, there was a crudely placed note that drew attention to the malfunctioning switch. Matthew nods to show he understands, and just as James was about to say something, the static of the radio crackles to life and is shortly cut off by a confident voice.   
“Tower Four, this is Tower Two. Hourly radio check. Over.”

James leads the way back into the watchtower and immediately sits down at the metal desk and the uncomfortable looking stool. Matthew follows and takes the opportunity to look around the small space where he was to spend the next several hours. There’s a slight crackle from James’ use of the radio, but he shortly replies with a slightly louder tone.   
“Tower Two. This is Tower Four. I Copy. Over.” He ends his line and waits for the reply from the tower positioned to the East of Gracewind Park.   
“Good to hear, Tower Four. Taking off for the night. Park’s all yours. Over.” The line cuts and James leaves the desk, heads to the entrance to where the breaker is positioned and sticks his head out of the door. Matthew frowns to himself and watches him, looks past his shoulder to see that he’s watching the lights of Tower Two. He seems to tense slightly as the lights go out, but still, he returns to the cot in the corner next to the metal desk and returns to his book. 

\----

Since James was occupied and clearly not a people-person, Matthew takes it upon himself to entertain himself. He approaches the large map of Gracewind though he knows all the trails by heart. What catches his eye is the scribblings on more of the wooden boards that barricaded the windows that were either side of said map. There were three distinct etchings, one that creepily asks ‘MISSING?’ that was positioned right next to the map. Does it reference the people that have gone missing in the park? 

Near that etching is another, but Matthew doesn’t understand what it means. There were four capital letters organised into a square, with a cross separating them into four sections of two: ‘IC, XC, NI, KA’.   
“What does this mean?” Matthew asks, pointing to the unknown etching. As he waited for James’ explanation, he notices another diagram etched on the other side of the map. What the Hell…  
“Jesus Christ Conquers.” James states in a tone that is so solemn, it’s as though he’s just sealed Matthew’s fate. A cold chill electrifies Matthew’s spinal column, his head flicking from the drawings to James, then back to the etches around the diagram. 

“Hello?” Matthew jumps out of his skin as the voice crackles over the radio, the owner of said voice sounds panicked. “Hello? Is anyone there?”   
James, unphased by the obvious distress in the caller’s voice, approaches the radio and responds to the distress call.   
“Copy. This is Fire Tower Four. Over.” Matthew is chilled by the calm manner that James takes, speaking with technical terms by starting with ‘copy’ and ending with ‘over’. He understands that any call needs to be handled appropriately, but with James’ tone, it’s as though he already knows what will happen to this man.   
“I-I saw this channel listed on one of the trails out here. I NEED you to help me.” James remains detached as the caller’s panic seeps deeper and begins to form into hysteria. “Something…I’m lost and something is chasing me! Please! You HAVE to help me!” James almost groans, as though this is bothering him, and Matthew is appalled by it.   
“Take over for a moment, I’ll turn on the breakers,” James tells Matthew, leaving the radio and the distressed caller behind and walks past Matthew as though he wasn’t even there. 

Matthew is shaking, this is his first distressed call and on his first night shift. The woods at night is nowhere for someone who is already scared to be. As James goes outside, Matthew sits down at the radio and collects himself to at least sound professional.   
“Copy. We’re turning on the floodlights, please look for them. Over.” Matthew informs the caller, glancing to the only window that wasn’t boarded up. He watches as James activates the malfunctioning breakers, holding the switch in place to allow the light to stay for a moment before shutting it off.   
“Yes! O-Okay…I saw them. I’m gonna come to you. Thank you.” The relief in the caller’s voice made Matthew relax in turn, even letting him smile slightly at the thought of aiding a distressed park visitor. There’s radio silence, and James is back in the room.   
“I’ll take over, just in case he needs help getting here.” He says, and Matthew nods in agreement since James was more experienced in this kind of situation. 

Hanging against the same wall that the cot is placed against was a cork board that was littered with information, and as Matthew approached to get a closer look, his stomach drops when he sees hand-drawn scribbles of a monster that looks horrifying. Around the park official information was clippings from newspapers that depicted missing cases involving Gracewind Park. They ranged from 1991 to 1999, all focused on strange incidents with scribbled hand-written comments as though someone was trying to connect all the information together.   
“What the…” Matthew mumbled under his breath as he tries to make sense of the chaos on the cork board, the drawings that he had seen before seemed to be representations of the repeatedly mentioned bipedal creature that was spotted by a range of hikers. Before Matthew could even begin to ask about what was going on, the radio silence was broken and the distressed caller from before began speaking.   
“Look, I…I don’t know what happened back there. I-I was just out camping. You know, a solo hike. Just a day or two to myself. I…” He cuts himself off by sighing deeply, as though slightly mocking his previous scared state before continuing. “This was such as mistake. Fresh air. A run. Yeah, lot of good that did me. I-I’m sorry I’m…rambling at you. Tryin’ to keep my head busy, you know? I’ll let you get back to whatever you do.” The radio went silent.

\----  
It was clear that the hiker was still very shaken, he would often return to the radio just to have someone to talk to as he made his way to the tower. James definitely needed to work on his bedside manner, so when it came to emotions and trying to calm the poor man down he left that to Matthew. They learnt through their short radio conversations that the hiker’s name was Alfred, and that he just wanted some time to himself but now he hated nature. Especially at night. 

After a moment of Alfred staying quiet and walking the trail that headed south to where their tower was located, he breaks the radio silence.  
“Okay, I’ve reached…The Carnation Rock Trail?” Alfred says as though he wasn’t sure of what the sign said. By this point, Matthew had taken to sitting on the cot as James stayed at the radio. He knew this park better than Matthew did, so he stayed out of the way and let him control the radio to guide the hiker to them.   
“Take the right path. Over.” James directs without needing to consult the map plastered on the wall to his left.   
“Going right. Alright.” Alfred confirms though he sounded unsure and nervous at the direction. Matthew began to get nervous, there was a creeping feeling of dread seeping into his bones and it made his stomach twist.   
“One…mistake…” Matthew’s head whips up when he hears Alfred’s voice through the radio, James’ own uncertain glance in Matthew’s direct only caused his stomach to twist with a greater intensity. It was Alfred’s voice, but it lacked something…it sounded hollow, void of anything but speech.  
“Hello? I don’t copy. Could you repeat? Over.” James requests, his voice level and unaffected, though his leg began to tap with an irritation that a paranoid individual exhibit when worried.   
“You feelin’ alright up there? I didn’t say anything.” Alfred responds, voice filled with life, and sounding nothing like it had just moments ago. Confusion is etched on both of the males’ faces, an unsettling tension hanging in the air like the calm before the storm. “Look I…I should be up to you any minute, right?” He asks, sounding unnerved by James’ request for him to repeat something he hadn’t said. 

James was agitated, like a rattled animal before a natural disaster. He leaves his post at the radio when the line goes dead. He approaches the cork board, eyes scanning the information he had posted there before turning sharply and marching towards the map. Taking the red pins with string attached that was there for trail plotting convenience, James begins to map out a route for Alfred to take. Matthew is beginning to feel fear now, getting to his feet as he watches James work as though his life depended on it, and is about to ask what’s happening in the woods when there’s a loud crash.   
Matthew and James are familiar with the sound; a tree falling in the forest with three men to hear it. The sound that follows it, however, is something they neither recognise nor understand as of human origin.   
“WHAT WAS THAT? DID YOU HEAR THAT?” The radio crackles to life with Alfred’s terrified reaction to the two loud sounds from the forest. James is busy with whatever he was doing, so Matthew rushes to the radio to try and calm Alfred down before he worked himself up too much.   
“It’s just a tree falling. Don’t worry about it.”   
“No. No, no, nonono. Did you HEAR that? That is not a TREE.” Alfred immediately refuses Matthew’s attempts to calm him down, and the short moment that the radio is silent for feels like an eternity and less than a second all at once. 

“Hey. I think I lost it.” The radio comes back to life, and it’s Alfred’s trembling voice. Matthew isn’t sure what he means by that, but he guessed that he ran from the sounds. “But. I…totally lost the trail too.” Matthew looks to James for help, and he simply taps his finger against the black blob on the map that represents the lake.   
“What do you see? Any landmarks?” Matthew asks, needing to know where Alfred is located currently so James can reroute the trail he had previously mapped out. There’s a moment of what sounds like shuffling down the radio, probably Alfred walking through the parts that aren’t mapped out on a trail through the forest as he tries to see anything other than trees.   
“I think I see a…lake? And…a…cave? A mine? Something like that?” Alfred reports, sounding unsure but James immediately locates where the lost hiker is.   
“He’s on route to the Mining Tunnels. Tell him to go towards the lake.” James instructs Matthew, in which he relays the information back to the lost hiker who was heading north instead of south.   
“Okay. If you get me out of this. I…I owe you one. Let’s just set it at that.” The line goes dead, and Matthew takes the moment to relax for a short moment. 

James is muttering to himself, answering his own questions or rebutting them as he frantically plots routes on the map. He keeps repeating the word “Goatman”, and Matthew can’t help but glance at the corkboard and feels as though the drawings are staring at him.   
“Are you…” Alfred’s voice comes through the radio again, but similar to how it was before, it was hollow and void of anything human. It causes Matthew’s blood to run cold, his posture straightening with fear, and it stops James in his tracks. “Watching…the lake?”   
“James…” Matthew calls, too scared to tear his eyes away from the radio, but he can head James’ hiking boots thud against the floor. He walks behind him and to the door to the balcony, his breath catching in his throat as he sees something in the woods, and immediately goes back to the map.   
“W-What was it? What did you see?” Matthew asks, too scared to look for himself but still wanting to know what was out there. James ignores him, shaking his head as he begins to plot out a route to Tower Two instead of Tower Four, where they were. 

Another inhuman screech pierces the otherwise peaceful night, followed by the crackling of the radio as the same deadpan voice of Alfred’s comes through.   
“Should I…make it…run?” Matthew panics, his fear levels rising to a peak moment as the voice begins laughing before cutting out. Matthew stands up and backs away from the radio immediately, retreating as though he had been burned by whatever was communicating with them.   
“Alright…Alright, um. Looks like I’m getting onto, uh. Gracewind Lake Pass?” Matthew looks to James as he begins to approach, ready to give the order to direct him to the empty tower. “This, ah…How much longer until I’m over to you?” James opens his mouth to reply to Alfred, ready to tell him to take the second path, when Matthew cuts him off.   
“Just keep on that trail and it should take you right to the tower.”   
“Alright. See you soon then.” The radio goes silent as Matthew seals his fate, staring James down as he doesn’t realise what he has done. Thinking that he’s aiding the hiker by guiding him towards them, he doesn’t understand that he’s also leading whatever was hunting him to the tower too. 

James looks enraged, staring him down until Matthew has to break eye contact with him out of shame. He doesn’t understand what’s happening here, and maybe he’ll ask James once this is over and when it’s daylight. Maybe he’ll ignore this happened, and only take day shifts.   
“Soon. All stuck.” It’s silent between James and Matthew as the imitation of Alfred’s voice comes through his end of the line. They stare at the radio in silence as it mimics Alfred’s voice, getting more confident the more it uses this voice. “Hello? Hello? Is anyone there?”   
Outside the tower, oh so close to where they were, there was another inhuman screech along with the terrified screams of Alfred. Then it stops suddenly, too suddenly.   
“Do you see it? Me.” The voice begins to growl, and James hurriedly turns off the light in the watchtower to consume them in darkness and hide them from whatever had just taken another hiker. “Do you…see it?”   
In the dark of the tower, Matthew looks out of the window beside the cork board and sees two red eyes scanning the forest for them. It turns away from them, reappearing in other areas as it searches for them.   
“Hello?...Hello?...I’ll see you soon.” The radio goes silent for the last time until daybreak, when another tower is occupied and ends their shift. James reports the night’s events, without revealing that something else was hunting them, and Alfred’s disappearance is reported to the media.   
Gracewind Park has now claimed 46 confirmed lives.


End file.
